Bengaluru: Captain Manjeet Chhillar led Puneri Paltan to a big win over Dabang Delhi K C with a classic all-round performance at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium. The crushing 38-20 defeat the third in a row for the team from the national capital has brought forth their limitations. To add to that insult their coach Balwan Singh Dahiya was shown the yellow card in the 23rd minute for dissent and a 1 technical point penalty was also imposed.
Earlier in the first session they got all out in the 16th minute to trail their opponents 6-14 and then managed to claw back to 9-16 at the halfway stage. The winners took a firm grip with Captain Manjeet Chhillar and Deepak Niwas Hooda the all-rounders showing the way.
For Delhi Kashiling did precious little till then except getting two points in a single raid. Surjeet Singh their new recruit too proved ineffective. A match tally of 5 points for Kashiling, 3 for Rohit Chaudhary and just 2 for Surjeet tells the full story of the lop-sided Dabang Delhi K C attack. Ravinder Pahal nick-named the ‘hawk’ for his swooping ankle holds last season is a pale shadow of himself in defence. Dabang Delhi K C must redraw their strategy to arrest the downslide.
Puneri Paltan had lost their first match narrowly at 26-27 to Telugu Titans conceding the winning point during the last raid by their rivals. They had displayed good teamwork in that nerve wracking encounter and it came as no surprise that they ran through their rivals with consummate ease today.
They are slowly settling down with Manjeet Chhillar, Deepak Hooda and Yogesh Hooda the all-rounders getting good support from the burly Surjeet in the defence. Executing good ankle and waist holds the right midfielder also used his muscle power to pin down the rival raiders. He had as many as six tackle points to his credit. Deepak Niwas Hooda was the top scorer for PuneriPaltan with 9 raid points followed by Manjeet was next with 8 points, 4 each in defence and attack.
Tushar Patil a substitute who came towards the end authored the only super raid of the match by getting 3 rival defenders which included the man who had the only super tackle tonight, Gnansekharan.
The top two spots are now occupied by Telugu Titans with 11 points, followed by Patna Pirates with 10 points in four and two outings respectively. Pune have climbed to third place above Jaipur Pink Panther. Both have six points.
